Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Today's not-to-be-missed political news and opinion

Update

Had a dental check up and cleaning this morning (Look ma, no cavities!). My dentist said her is reading Clinton Cash. He said the startling thing was the sheer number of shady transactions documented. ~Bob

While Clinton remains strikingly dominant in the Democratic field, the poll shows that her numbers have dropped significantly across several key indicators since she launched her campaign in April. A growing number of people say she is not honest and trustworthy (57%, up from 49% in March), less than half feel she cares about people like them (47%, down from 53% last July) and more now feel she does not inspire confidence (50%, up from 42% last March).

Excerpt: Clinton’s favorability ratings are the lowest in a Post-ABC poll since April 2008, when she was running for president the first time. Today, 41 percent of Americans say she is honest and trustworthy, compared with 52 percent who say she is not — a 22-point swing in the past year.

Excerpt: Hillary Clinton’s “women only” fundraiser shifted its invitation list at the last minute to include anyone who would buy a ticket after sales for the $2,700/person event dwindled, a new report alleges.

Excerpt: The Congressional Black Caucus is the most ridiculously corrupt part of an already corrupt Congress. A study two years ago found that a third of black congressmen had been named in an ethics probe during their careers. 5 of the 6 members under review by the House Ethics Committee that year were CBCers. In 2009, every single member of Congress under investigation was from the same old gang. Like the Clinton Foundation, the CBC exists to trade money for influence. The Caucus takes in tens of millions from major corporations and spends it on parties for its members and funnels the rest into fake non-profits. Even the minority scholarships endowed with great ceremony as a way of providing opportunity to their underprivileged constituents have a way of going to their own children and friends. (Wow, I have always liked Greenfield for his very direct, incisive commentary, but now I have to add to that admiration for his courage. He will now be vilified far and wide, day and night, as a horrible racist, because he has dared to come out with direct, solid, and severe criticism of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus. That he is using their own words, and the facts of the history, means nothing in this PC world where no White man can come out and harshly criticize any Black or group of Blacks for their actions. I won't be surprised if he gets all kinds of threats now, and he'll be totally unwelcome as a speaker at colleges and universities. And he may be responsible for a heart attack or other form of overstress on the part of the politicians he refers to when they get in front of cameras to scream about him. --Del)

Excerpt: Airport screeners failed to detect explosives and weapons in nearly every test that an undercover Homeland Security team conducted at dozens of airports, according to an internal investigation. The Transportation Security Administration found that "red teams" with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General were able to get banned items through the screening process in 67 out of 70 tests it conducted across the nation. (I have long maintained that what we get at the airport is the illusion of safety, designed just to make us feel safe. ~Bob)

Excerpt: If Brian Williams hasn’t already done so, a healthy donation to the Clinton Foundation probably couldn’t hurt when it comes to getting out of his predicament. In the meantime, NBC News is trying to find something for him to do:

Excerpt: Places where the DOJ has done this like Los Angeles has resulted in more crime, more lawlessness more mayhem. But that doesn’t matter to the ideological bureaucrats who are pushing these actions. They care about an anti-police agenda more than they care about safe streets.

Excerpt: The FBI does not generally obtain warrants to record video from its planes of people moving outside in the open, but it also said that under a new policy it has recently begun obtaining court orders to use cell-site simulators. The Obama administration had until recently been directing local authorities through secret agreements not to reveal their own use of the devices, even encouraging prosecutors to drop cases rather than disclose the technology's use in open court. A Justice Department memo last month also expressly barred its component law enforcement agencies from using unmanned drones "solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment" and said they are to be used only in connection with authorized investigations and activities. A department spokeswoman said the policy applied only to unmanned aircraft systems rather than piloted airplanes. (Want naked pictures of your neighbors? Or yourself? They probably have them. I wonder how many cases of littering–and other minor crimes like assault and armed robbery–have been ignored due to "prosecutorial discretion?" Maybe we do need some program like this, but I can’t help thinking it ought to be rifled at specific targets rather than shotgunned at vast numbers of innocents. Ron P.)

Excerpt: Details confirmed by the FBI track closely with published reports since at least 2003 that a government surveillance program might be behind suspicious-looking planes slowly circling neighborhoods. The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights since late April orbiting both major cities and rural areas. ...A federal budget document from 2010 mentioned at least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, in the FBI's surveillance fleet.

Unbelievable: Obama: I've Restored The US As The 'Most Respected Country In The World'

Excerpt: Monday while President Barack Obama was answering questions at a town hall with YSEALI Fellows, an exchange program for community leaders from ASEAN, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said his administration has restored the Untied States as the “the most respected country on earth.” Obama said, “People don’t remember, but when I came into office, the Untied States in world opinion ranked below China and just barley above Russia, and today once again, the Untied States is the most respected country on earth. Part of that I think is because of the work we did to reengage the world and say we want to work with you as partners with mutual interests and mutual respect. (Obama must have eaten too many paint chip as a toddler. Se next article. ~Bob)

Excerpt: President Obama explained to a group of young Asian leaders today that it was important not to betray one’s principles while being a leader. He pointed out that one of his core principles is to “treat everyone fairly” regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or religion. “One of my core principles is that I will never engage in a politics in which I’m trying to divide people or make them less than me because they look different or have a different religion,” Obama said.

Today, June 1, is the 35th anniversary of the launch of CNN, the first 24/7 cable news network. In keeping with the network’s current format as Jeff Zucker’s personal, left-wing propaganda machine, the network appropriately announced on the day of its 35th anniversary the hiring of partisan Democrat Dan Pfeiffer as a “contributor.” I would argue, though, that “Obama plant” is a better description:

Obama Admin. Deems Part of WyomingTribalLand, Putting Hospital in Legal Battle. Who is Obama lawyer Hilary C. Tompkins, and why did she rewrite history?

Excerpt: The hospital’s filing comes in a February 2014 lawsuit by the state of Wyoming and the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation challenging the December 2013 decision by the EPA to treat the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe “in a Similar Manner as a State Under the Clean Air Act.” The EPA’s decision, however, did not just give the tribes authority to enforce the Clean Air Act on the Wind River Indian Reservation. It also declared over a million acres in west-central Wyoming, including the town of Riverton, as part of that reservation, that is, “Indian country.”

Excerpt: Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said a Social Security Trust Fund does not exist and that the U.S. is “way underestimating” the size of its national debt. “The notion that we have a trust fund is nonsense – that trust fund has no meaning whatsoever except for the fact as an all private fund to benefit programs, if it runs out of money, you can only pay out in cash flows that come in but the probability that will happen is not particularly high,” Greenspan told the Fiscal Summit held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. “That means the trust fund is a meaningless instrument that has no function … it’s exactly the same thing as current expenses." (One of the points I made in my 2011 book, The Coming Collapse of the American Republichttp://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5 ~Bob)

Excerpt: Elfriede Rinkel’s past as a Nazi concentration camp guard didn’t keep her from collecting nearly $120,000 in American Social Security benefits.... Rinkel is among 133 suspected Nazi war criminals, SS guards, and others who may have participated in the Third Reich’s atrocities who received $20.2 million in Social Security benefits, according to a report to be released later this week by the inspector general of the Social Security Administration. ...The payments are far greater than previously estimated and occurred between February 1962 and January 2015, when a new law called the No Social Security for Nazis Act kicked in and ended retirement payments for four beneficiaries. (Any wonder the Social Security fund is bankrupt....Barb)

Excerpt: ... The saucer, part of NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, which aims to develop landing vehicles for future missions, underwent a “spin test” on a table at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. on March 31. Jurczyk explained that taking the saucer to an altitude of 180,000 provides a crucial test ahead of future missions to Mars.... “With this LDSD technology we hope to land about five metric tonnes, that will enable more capable robotic missions,” said Jurczyk, noting that a ‘sample return’ vehicle could even be used to return Mars samples to earth. (Illuminati keep thinking they are leaving the mess they've made and ducking and covering on Mars....Barb. If the illuminati exist, I'd like a membership application. But not for a Mars trip. A bit cold and dry and airless for my taste. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The smalltooth sawfish is critically endangered, and scientists say the females are doing something rather drastic that species on the brink of extinction sometimes do: giving birth virgin Mary style. (...) Here's how it works: Scientists say an unfertilized egg absorbs "a sister cell" that is almost identical to the egg. The offspring usually don't survive, but the sawfish's did, and they appeared to be healthy to boot. (The article doesn’t say, but it stands to reason all the babies produced this way are female. I wonder if the off-spring are fertile with males? When I was a preteen, my grandfather operated a fish house on the Gulf coast of Florida. He gave me a sawfish’s bill about two feet long that I kept for years, then lost track of. At that time [1950s], sawfish were considered a nuisance fish by the net fishermen who sold G’pa their catches. The world really is odd, isn’t it? Ron P.)

FoodCity is a Southern grocery store chain with headquarters in Bristol, Tennessee. This is their one-minute commercial. Not a word spoken and none is needed. Very few commercials deserve to go viral. (This has been around before, but still great. ~Bob)

Rising Dragon News

Worth Reading: What U.S. Businesses Should Consider Before Expanding In China. By Chet Nagle

Excerpt: This week's announcement by the International Monetary Fund that China's yuan is "no longer undervalued" may shake up the political debate in Washington (where playing the China card is back in vogue), but this news is unlikely to make an impact on the short and medium-term forecasts of the Chinese market. China watchers have seen slowing growth on the mainland for months. Change is coming for Western companies operating in that market, including an increasingly hostile business climate. Multinationals may soon start voting with their feet. Eamonn Fingleton, author of the book In the Jaws of the Dragon, gets it exactly right: in China, real power is based on the principle of "selective enforcement." Laws are strictly written, but are only enforced selectively by communist-controlled courts and party functionaries. Essentially, a law is enforced strictly if it suits the authorities, or casually if it does not. (Chet Nagle is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, a Naval Aviator, a former navy research and development project officer, a former CIA agent and is a director of the Committee on the Present Danger. He is also the author of three terrific thrillers: Lazarus Man, The Iran Covenant and The Woolsorter's Plague.http://www.amazon.com/Lazarus-Man-Cyberhawk-Chet-Nagle/dp/0991324331/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1423325629&sr=1-1&keywords=lazarus+man ~Bob)

Excerpt: The United States pushes back against Chinese claims over a vast tract of water of enormous importance. It’s a classic win-or-lose confrontation. At the moment, the war is just one of words. On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called a U.S. Navy reconnaissance flight over the hotly contested South China Sea “very irresponsible and dangerous and detrimental to regional peace and stability.” The admonition came two days after the Chinese navy sent eight warnings to an American P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft, telling it not to approach Fiery Cross Reef in the SpratlyIsland chain.

Excerpt: Ask ten China scholars to define Chinese grand strategy and you will get ten answers. In a formal sense, it does not exist. Yet observers can discern coherent strategic priorities that, in aggregate, resemble the elements of a grand strategy. Today, the first priority is arguably driven by the Communist Party’s preoccupation with mitigating key vulnerabilities in pursuit of stability and growth. Rapid economic growth long ago replaced ideology as the principal binding agent of the Chinese system. At a time when Beijing needs that growth more than ever to ease the frictions in its system (rampant corruption, elite infighting, social and political unrest, environmental degradation, and massive demographic challenges), Chinese GDP growth has dipped to its lowest level in a quarter century.

Excerpt: Restaurant operator KFC said Monday it filed a lawsuit against three companies in China whose social media accounts spread false claims about its food, including that its chickens have eight legs. The case filed by China's biggest restaurant operator comes as the government intensifies a campaign to clean up rumors on social media. ...In an announcement posted on its Chinese website, KFC said one of the best-known fake rumors was that chickens used by the company are genetically modified and have six wings and eight legs.

Excerpt: Rescue divers from across China converged on a remote stretch of the Yangtze River on Tuesday in a race to save people believed to be trapped inside the hull of a capsized cruise ship that had carried 456 passengers and crew members. As of Tuesday evening, nearly a full day after the four-story ship, the Oriental Star, capsized amid high winds and heavy rain, only 14 people were known to have survived the accident, including a 65-year-old woman, Zhu Hongmei, who was dramatically pulled from an air pocket inside the ship just after midday Tuesday by divers. (Steve McQueen and the Sand Pebbles are on the way. ~Bob)

Excerpt: According to police, a 36-year-old man and his 34-year-old male relative, both known to the 51-year-old male cab driver as a result of frequent calls for transportation, hailed the cab and allegedly attempted to rob the driver at knifepoint. The cab driver, in an effort to protect himself, retrieved his firearm and shot the 36-year-old man.

Excerpt: Three Colorado teens were shot — one fatally — while trying to rob three men at gunpoint as they were moving into an Aurora apartment late Friday night. Aurora police say that the three teenagers approached the three intended victims in the foyer of the apartment building and held them at gunpoint. The three movers were described as being in their 20s. ... The armed mover opened fire and hit all three of the teens, killing one, putting a second in critical condition, and slightly wounding another.

In recent years, Chicago has been the focal point of attention regarding violence among minorities in large cities, but Baltimore has rocketed up the chain after a record-setting number of homicides in May. Criminal activity jumped following the death of Freddie Gray, and the spree continued on Sunday with three additional felonious deaths. The month ended with a staggering 43 murders, the most of any May and "the deadliest month since the early 1970s, when 44 people were killed in December 1971 and 45 people in August 1972," USA Today reported. Unsurprisingly, the upward swing in homicides is commensurate with a precipitous drop in the number of suspects being apprehended (32% by one estimate). The city has registered 116 homicides year-to-date. And while that may not sound impressive compared to areas like Chicago, on a per-capita-basis Baltimore in its current climate is actually far more dangerous. As Daily Caller contributor Derek Hunter writes, "The 48 murders in Chicago [in May] are disturbing, but the city has a population of 2.7 million people. In the month of May, there was one murder for every 56,250 Chicagoans. Meanwhile in Baltimore, a city with a population of only 622,000, their 43 murders puts them at a rate of one murder for every 14,465 residents." In other words, "Residents of Baltimore were 3.8 times more likely to be murdered than residents of Chicago in the month of May," Hunter concludes. Most alarmingly, imagine the homicide figures in a city like Chicago if it were to experience a Freddie Gray-type incident. (Backing the police down because of "racism" results in more murdered black folks. But #Blackvotesmatter not black lives. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Baltimore is now paying the price for irresponsible words and actions, not only by young thugs in the streets, but also by its mayor and the state prosecutor, both of whom threw the police to the wolves, in order to curry favor with local voters. Now murders in Baltimore in May have been more than double what they were in May last year, and higher than in any May in the past 15 years. Meanwhile, the number of arrests is down by more than 50 percent. Various other communities across the country are experiencing very similar explosions of crime and reductions of arrests, in the wake of anti-police mob rampages from coast to coast that the media sanitize as “protests.”

Obama Built That: The New Nationwide Crime Wave. The consequences of the ‘Ferguson effect’ are already appearing. The main victims of growing violence will be the inner-city poor. By Heather Mac Donald

Excerpt: The nation’s two-decades-long crime decline may be over. Gun violence in particular is spiraling upward in cities across America. In Baltimore, the most pressing question every morning is how many people were shot the previous night. Gun violence is up more than 60% compared with this time last year, according to Baltimore police, with 32 shootings over Memorial Day weekend. {snip} In Milwaukee, homicides were up 180% by May 17 over the same period the previous year. Through April, shootings in St. Louis were up 39%, robberies 43%, and homicides 25%. “Crime is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said St. Louis Alderman Joe Vacarro at a May 7 City Hall hearing. Murders in Atlanta were up 32% as of mid-May. Shootings in Chicago had increased 24% and homicides 17%. Shootings and other violent felonies in Los Angeles had spiked by 25%; in New York, murder was up nearly 13%, and gun violence 7%. (Well, if you make cops feel like they are on trial every time they go out on the street, and you tell people the cops are their enemies and they should be treating them like nasty invaders, guess what happens? The cops back off in a variety of ways, but while they back off, criminals come forward. And crime and violence increase, which really should be no surprise to anyone. This is all very unfortunate, and the consequences over time are things like fewer stores operating in the inner city, since theft and vandalism make it too expensive. Which means fewer jobs, more boarded-up buildings, and further deterioration of the areas. Living in such areas has to be even more unpleasant, especially for the old and infirm who are now more likely to be robbed. Law and order are a critical part of civilization, but without law enforcement you don't get that. --Del)

Excerpt: Jeb Bush is often called a "moderate." Yet that may be more because of his style than his political beliefs. While he was governor of Florida, Bush was probably the most aggressive reformer of any governor in the country. Both in education and in health care, he did things that had never been done before. Since health care is the No. 1 domestic-policy issue, Bush's Medicaid reforms are perhaps the most interesting. Although this may come as a surprise to some, Medicaid is not completely run by the government. More than two-thirds of Medicaid recipients nationwide are in private health plans these days. And Florida has pushed the boundaries of privatization.

Excerpt: Federal agents detained 50 undocumented migrants found aboard an airliner preparing to take off from Cancun international airport bound for a city on theU.S.border,Mexico’s INM immigration agency said. INM said in a statement that Viva Airbus Flight 4210 for Reynosa, just across the border from McAllen, Texas, was about to depart when it was delayed at the agents’ request to conduct an inspection....In coordination with the Attorney General’s Office, the military, the CISEN intelligence service and Federal Police, the INM agents discovered the50 undocumented migrants: 23 Salvadorans, 18 Cubans, five Guatemalans, two Hondurans, one Belizean and a citizen from Grenada. The foreigners were taken to an INM office inCancunto be identified and proceed to consular notifications before starting the administrative process for repatriation to their respective home countries.

Excerpt: Before Walker went on a fundraising cruise on Lake Winnipesaukee, Americans United For Change (AUFC)—a liberal organization—announced it would be organizing a counter-protest to Walker’s cruise. A couple things made this different than any normal protest, however. First off, the people “protesting” Walker on global warming—who they called “climate change voters”—would be dressed as moose. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they’d be on a “floating iceberg” behind Walker.

Excerpt: The global climate agreement being negotiated this year must be worded in such a way that it doesn’t require approval by the US Congress, the French foreign minister said on Monday. Laurent Fabius told African delegates at UN climate talks in Bonn that “we know the politics in the US. Whether we like it or not, if it comes to the Congress, they will refuse.”

Feds pour $32 million more into beleaguered solar industry. By Tori Richards

Excerpt: The Department of Energy has doled out another $32 million to support the solar industry, a sector fraught with technology challenges and scandal – and nevertheless propped up with billions of taxpayer dollars during the Obama Administration. This latest funding is dedicated to training a workforce of solar technicians, developing new technology and implementing a database to share performance data, the DOE announced in a press release last week.

Excerpt: After nearly two years of delays, the Environmental Protection Agency finally released its proposed requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standard on Friday. It offers increases on one hand but, on the other, at rates lower than previously called for by Congress. (Tough on the hungry in the Third World, but the base must be appeased. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Bill Nye, best known for his TV series “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” was being interviewed about the cause of the Texas floods. Of course, he blamed it on climate change. No one doubts that there is climate change. It’s been going on since time began. For Nye, it’s “man-made climate change” that’s the culprit. So what was it in 1935? "In 1935, while Austin was receiving its deluge, San Antonio was hit even harder with 14.07 inches in May with 8.41 inches the next month. The stores around AlamoPlaza were flooded in late May and tiny D'Hanis, Texas, reported a hard-to-believe 20-24 inches of rain in just 2 Hours and 45 Minutes.

Excerpt: President Obama is expected to soon add emission rules for big-rig trucks to a growing list of regulations to combat the threat of climate change. The president directed the Environmental Protection Agency to develop new rules for heavy-duty trucks to make them more fuel efficient, while lowering their carbon dioxide emissions to lessen the effects of global warming....The rules will not only regulate the truck and the engine, but are also expected to add new efficiency and emission regulations for trailers that large tractor-trailer trucks haul. (Expect the cost of goods sold to escalate, i.e., food, gasoline, bottled water....Command economies take control on the backs of the "folks" unless you're "special" in the Regime. If you're on a fixed income--disability, social "security" or a pension--you're screwed. --Barb)

Excerpt: The defection to ISIS of the U.S.-trained commander of Tajikistan's special forces is a major public relations coup for the terrorist army, but likely not an immediate threat to coalition forces, experts said. Last week, ISIS released a video featuring the defector, Col. Gulmurod Khalimov, saying he underwent training under U.S. Special Forces and the now-defunct private security contractor Blackwater. The State Department reportedly confirmed that Khalimov participated in the training through its Diplomatic Security/Anti-Terrorism Assistance program, and was taught crisis response, tactical management of special events and tactical leadership training.

Excerpt: A police officer and FBI agent investigating possible terror suspects shot and killed a man outside a Boston drugstore early Tuesday, officials told NBC News. Officials said the officer and agent had been investigating whether the man had become radicalized by ISIS-inspired social media messages. A senior official with knowledge of the investigation identified the man as Usaama Rahim.

Assume ISIS knows? Obama: ‘I Am The Closest Thing To A Jew That Has Ever Sat In This Office.’ By Jamie Weinstein

Excerpt: "You know, I think I am the closest thing to a Jew that has ever sat in this office,” the president claimed, according to Axelrod. “For people to say that I am anti-Israel, or, even worse, anti-Semitic, it hurts.” During Obama’s tenure, U.S.-Israel relations have fallen to their lowest point in decades.

Excerpt: A United Nations (UN) committee on Monday awarded "observer" status to a UK-based Palestinian organization, which advocates for Israel's destruction, Fox News reports. The Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), which allegedly serves as a Hamas front, earned the important designation on the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), enabling the radical group to receive official UN badges and complete access to UN facilities. The PRC's new status also allows it to partake in UN debates in New York, Geneva, and Vienna.

Excerpt: Something unusual has begun in the Washington-New York corridor. Journalists and policy analysts have begun a critical public discussion about President Obama's understanding (or misunderstanding) of the significance and nature of the anti-Semitism of the Iranian regime. They are asking how his view on that subject affects prospects for a nuclear deal to stop the ayatollahs from getting the bomb. Insights about the history and nature of anti-Semitism that we historians have elaborated over the years are finding their way into the pages of several of our major newspapers and at least one important policy-related international relations journal.

Excerpt: The Palestinian Authority continues to destroy any chance for lasting peace by teaching children that Palestinians and Muslims are in conflict with Jews. The PA teaches that Jews have an intrinsically evil nature and that this conflict is part of Islam. The PA repeatedly sends the message that the conflict is much more than a conflict over territory. (When the Allied powers defeated Germany and Japan, they ceased airing vicious, demonizing propaganda. And indeed the propaganda had been cruel and crude, but never to the level of exhortation to extermination of a people? Why did the Allies change their tune? Because they wanted, as rapidly as possible, to reconcile with and build up a population with whom they could coexist. Not so the Palestinians, who, unbeknownst to most, have benefited in every way more under Israeli administration than under brotherly Jordanian occupation. Having refused several compromises that would have given them their state, they have openly returned to their original goal of destroying and replacing Israel. If the PA cannot teach its children that Israelis and Jews are humans with whom it is possible and desirable to coexist, there can be no peace. Just look at the populations of Egypt and Jordan with whom Israel has formal peace agreements. The governments there have done nothing to promote people to people reconciliation. After the Muslim Brothers took over Egypt, had they not been overthrown, I'm sure they would have canceled the peace treaty. If the monarchy in Jordan falls, this would happen, too. For the very same reason -- that the populations desire the destruction of Israel, not to interact with it. But the armies of Egypt and Jordan had been defeated; their governments don't want to risk such losses again. Meanwhile, despite propagandistic press around the world, Israel has chosen not to inflict a decisive victory on the terrorists and corrupt satraps of the Palestinians. Has there ever been an occupation such as this in the history of the world when the "oppressed" enjoy high living standards, freedom of speech , etc.? I'm afraid if there ever is to be a Palestinian state, it will have to be after the reconquest, reoccupation and re-education of Judea and Samaria. Until these people are defeated and are disabused of their fantasy of murdering Jews and replacing them, there will never be a peace. Cordially, --Larry Greenberg)

Excerpt: A Pakistani politician says women wearing jeans can be blamed for earthquakes, inflation and natural disasters. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami Fazl political party, made the comments during a press conference Saturday and called for Pakistani armed forces to launch a military operation against the women, The New Indian Express reports. Rehman reportedly said women who are not covered like a “sack of flour” are weapons of mass destruction to Pakistan, and that the country has an abundance of such ‘missiles’ in all its major cities. (And I thought just the Iranians had mentioned this....Barb)

Excerpt: A centerpiece of the U.S. war plan against ISIS is in danger of collapsing. A key rebel commander and his men are ready to ready to pull out in frustration of the U.S. program to train a rebel army to beat back the terror group in Syria, The Daily Beast has learned. The news comes as ISIS is marching on the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. Rebels fighting the jihadists there told The Daily Beast that the U.S.-led coalition isn’t even bothering to respond to their calls for airstrikes to stop the jihadist army.

New Salafi Jihadi Group in Gaza: The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade. By Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

Excerpt: A new group in Gaza calling itself the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade claimed credit for rocket attacks on Ashkelon in late May. Omar Hadid was a key figure in the early years of Iraq's insurgency, aligned with al-Qa'ida in Iraq leader Abu. Indeed, his name was already being used in Islamic State of Iraq material in 2006. The use of this name, along with the fact that the brigade's video release uses two Islamic State nasheeds ("I am not content with a life of humiliation" and "We have the swords"), should indicate the orientation of this new Gaza-based group towards the Islamic State, similar to other small pro-Islamic State outfits in the area like Jamaat Ansar al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Bayt al-Maqdis.

Arms sales the biggest US weapon at Camp David summit. By William Hartung

Excerpt: The summit between President Barack Obama and representatives from the Persian Gulf countries that kicked off on Thursday at Camp David is meant to reassure Washington's Arab allies. "Don't worry about the nuclear deal with Iran," Obama will say. "We've got your back." And what's the best way to show your friends that you've got their back? Sell them billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons. In fact, it seems like arms sales are the Obama administration's tool of choice these days for dealing with everything from counter-terrorism to a lagging economy. And the consequences, unsurprisingly, are bloody.

Must Read: The Islamophobia Revolution Will Be Brought to You by Diet Coke. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: While Americans yawned through another weekend, watching television or playing catch with their kids, the greatest human rights violation in our nation’s troubled history took place in the sky above Chicago. Tahera Ahmad, a Muslim chaplain at NorthwesternUniversity who has participated in MSA and ISNA events, and gotten her photo taken with Obama, was denied an unopened Diet Coke. “Muslim Chaplain Tahera Ahmad Denied Diet Coke,” NBC News blared. “I Can’t Help But Cry,” the CNN headline declaims. “’No Diet Coke for you': Islamophobia at 30000 feet,” bleated The Guardian. “Outrage after United Airlines refuses Muslim woman Diet Coke,” the Mirror chimed in.

Michigan lawmaker fights to free Marine held in Iran. By Lauren French

Excerpt: Rep. Dan Kildee is looking to take advantage of the international spotlight on Iran. The Michigan Democrat is pushing for the release of his constituent, Amir Hekmati, who’s been imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since 2011, when the former U.S. Marine was arrested and accused of being an American spy. (If he'd been a deserter, Obama would have traded for him. ~Bob)

Two US jihadis who made ISIS propaganda videos - including one on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list - 'are killed in Iraqi air strike.' By John Hall

Excerpt: Two American nationals - including a jihadi featured on the FBI's 'Most Wanted Terrorists' list - are believed to have been killed fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq. Ahmad Abousamra, 33, and Abu Osama al-Amriki are understood to have died as a result of an airstrike by Iraqi warplanes in the west of the largely ISIS-held province of Anbar. A number of other senior ISIS commanders - including the jihadi in charge of local suicide bombing operations - were also killed in the airstrikes. The Americans are said to have been heavily involved in the production of ISIS' propaganda videos, and have even been linked to the sickening filmed beheadings of two Britons and three U.S. nationals in a series of videos released by the terror group last summer.